Mai's Blog

2011年12月6日火曜日

I, myself is a heavy Internet user.
Internet is something that I absolutely cannot live without, but for this blog
post I got a chance to think about the good and the bad about internet.

There are both several things that are good and about the internet.

First the good parts about the internet. One is that its a fast way of communication.
This is the first thing that came up in my mind because I use the internet
mainly to communicate people. What I mean by communicating with people
is "Social Network". Social networks such as facebook and twitter are so useful
when it comes to contacting your friends and your family.
Without the internet, there would be no facebook therefore internet is the basis
of everything that are ordinary right now in our lives.

Another good thing about the internet and social network is that it can be
used as an useful tool for marketing and bussinesses. For example companies
use facebook to look at the votes for their products and find out what customers
are actually looking for in their products. A communication strategist from Oxford
Communications said that facebook is a useful tool for organizations to advertise
and sell their products. Why Facebook’s New Questions Tool Is Good for Brands & Businesses

Last most good thing about the internet is that people anywhere in the world
have access to information, pictures, even music or movies online.
Probably the most popular and famous place to purchase music and movies
would be iTunes. Just register the credit card number, one click and anybody
has an easy access to their favorite music and movies. This is a super convenient
tool for those who want to easily purchase things but have no time to actually
go to the store. Internet widens the activities that people do at home and
make many things covenient for a lof people.

Now, on to the bad things about the internet.
Even though I have mentioned that good things about the internet, there are
many arguments that can go against the good.

First about the "Social Network" online, it is fun, addicting and an useful tool
for many people, it creates a lot of problems at the same time.
Since many people spend most of their time on social network online,
websites such as facebook are big targets for Malware and other viruses.
People might try to add new people on their list of friends and might
put themselves in danger without knowing its a virus. Read More on -> Friend Request Virus
Hackers take advantages of the popularity of facebook and create
virus through advertisements and even on friend requests.

Another bad factor about the internet relating to the previous good things,
is that not everybody actually purchase the information, music or movies online.
Many people find programs, softwares or websites that let music or movies
download free online. Even if people are aware of the fact that the better
quality version and officially approved versions can be purchased online,
many people choose to not pay and view them for free.

Downloading free music or streaming free movies online is completely
illegal and are subject to be against copyright. Not only music and movies,
even books, comics and documents are available online, also can be found
free on some websites. Major websites such as Amazon.com have online
reading books and documents, if they are of course purchased.
Since such easy accesses are provided for people, the actualy CD record sales,
DVDs, movie tickets and books have declined in its sales.

Last bad thing about the internet is that it created more problems
on personal information that should not be shared with others.
Since people input their personal information such as home addresses,
numbers, credit card information, hackers have access to all of those if they
find out a way to hack into whatever account. Of course without the internet,
we could have totally avoided the problem of privacy.
This is an example of a supermarket online having access to personal information
without any notice and knowledge of those customers. Supermarket Cards Threat to Privacy
People are not aware of what they register in online, and are only thinking
about what to purchase online.

Looking at both good and the bad on internet, makes me think if internet
is more good or bad. As much as I am truly addicted to the internet and
cannot imagine a day without it, if there was no internet ever created, it would
have avoided many problems that are caused online.

2011年11月10日木曜日

Are people aware of what'Malware'is?
I am already assuming even half of the people who are addicted to the internet
are not aware of this dangerous virus, since I was one of them.

I use the internet absolutely every single day and its something that
I cannot live without because I mainly use it to contact people and
communicate through social network. (Facebook, Twitter, etc...)

I've never heard of such a word as 'Malware' before reading the articles on it
although I had a general idea of computer and internet viruses.

Malware is a virus that developed and spread over the years through
internet and computer programs. Malware includes different viruses such as
trojan horses, worms and spyware which I've heard of the most.

Basically Malware developed to become more harmful for computers
over the years and the recent problem in society and malware is that
it is spreading more quickly through social networking.

Researches have found that social networks such as Facebook,
users are easily attacked by malware.

People do not realize that they are in the danger zone of malware
by using application, clicking 'Like' buttons, playing online games,
viewing random advertisements through Facebook.

Researchers discovered the 40% of Facebook users are attacked by Malware.

Spread of malware became easier since now so many people are
familiar with social networking.
Malware can scan the page that people are viewing, which is not a good news
at all because it leads to any personal/private information.

Malware can be used for money purposes such as credit card fraud
or asking users to pay for something that are actually unnecessary.

Articles on Malware suggest that users should be more careful of
what site they are viewing, especially at workplaces, they should decide
what websites employees are allow to view so that they can avoid
accessing pages with Malware.

My personal thoughts on this spread of Malware through social network...
is that I think it is a very difficult virus to avoid.

Even if people are successful at preventing Malware at workplaces,
people nowadays use computers almost everyday at home, which does not
stop the spread of the virus.

Perhaps it might be best to install anti-virus programs on computers...?
This is one reason I use Macintosh instead of Windows since
I've heard from people that Macintosh prevents viruses better than Windows...

2011年11月8日火曜日

This time the Mashup assignment was to think of a place where I spend
a lot of money,and also what I spend them on. Then to make a logo out of it.

I first thought about the supermarket that I go to very often to get food, then thought again about it and did not want to customize a logo of a supermarket. I thought I rather make something that relates more to myself and not just a supermarket because I need food :0)

My hobbies are cooking, sewing, making jewelries...and of course as a girl shopping is my forever hobby! I go to this store called the "Forever 21" an American brand which came to Japan very recently. I go to the store once a month and shop for clothes, accessories and lingeries. This store is known to be very cheap and it actually really is, which I can by about almost 10 items for $100 (10,000 yen).

2011年11月1日火曜日

We Are All Artists is a podcast that Timmmmboy posted online,
about the assignment ds106.

This podcast encouraged students or anybody who is interested in
computer and art to do more in that particular field.

He basically explains throughout his podcast that...:

'Art' can be learned, can be practiced everyday, if people have the
will to get better or are interested in the subject. Art is not just born talent, its something that
anybody can develop their skills!

ds106 online course can be part of the 'practice' of art and computer.
Creativity can be developed through this project and so students who
are in the project can join the program.

He says "You are more creative when you are hungry"
What he means by this quote is that when people want something,
they are constantly thinking about something that they want and
find a way to achieve your ultimate goal.

The process to getting to your goal might be not necessarily always
easy, usually challenges take harder processes. Even though the
path might seem rough, people should accept the fact that
it will take time. Tim says "Get Uncomfortable!"

The keypoints of his lecture was also about "Inspiration"
There are so many things around people that people can
get inspired by and then create an own art.

He also then talks about how sometimes pop culture
can be sometime an unreliable source for inspiration.
Some works but some just don't.

On my personal opinion from listening to the lecture,
Tim obviously was not a fan of "pop culture" or the
popular media, reality TV shows!
I thought his opinion on not getting inspired by
watching other people's life was not necessary all true to all people.
I say this because anybody can get inspiration from
everywhere and anywhere since all people feel, view and consume different.

Also about what people feel about what interesting is different!
(this is also my personal opinion as well...)

It was interesting to hear how ds106 can be a training for
students to develop art, computer and creative skills.

I agree that it requires people to use your creative side of mind
and then totally have fun with it.

Despite the extreme cases, I just thought that art is very free
and suppose to be fun. Its a very difficult subject to be graded
and be judged on.